*Please note -- a number of service offering were added to the new taxonomy after our import of existing content from Drupal into QuickBase, so they were not included in the mapping and will need to be created in the QuickBase app.

The ITS Service Database App

We have imported data from our current ITS website service offering pages from Drupal into the QuickBase app. This was made possible by the yeoman efforts of Faith Brown (to get the new app in place so expeditiously) and the ITS web team (particularly Gene Chi, who managed to iron out the vagaries of formatting and special characters).

This one-time import was based on a mapping of existing service offerings to the new service taxonomy. This was quite challenging, because changes ranged from entire service groups being newly created (or discontinued), to service offerings being split into more granular offerings (or, conversely, being rolled up into a single offering). The ITS website currently has about 87 service offerings; the new taxonomy has more than 135 community-facing services. We did our best but may have missed the mark in some instances.

What you need to know

We did not find an exact, 1-to-1 mapping for many of the new service offerings.

In cases where a current service offering was split into several new offerings, we imported the current offering into all of these. The rationale was that at least some of the information will be relevant to each of the offerings, and it is easier to edit and update than to build from scratch.

In cases where two or more current offerings were rolled up into one new offering, we imported from the current offering that we felt was the best match, with the knowledge that the service manager can go to the ITS website and cut-and-paste in information from the offering(s) that was not imported. (See the mappings spreadsheet for our thought process.)

When you go to the QuickBase app and navigate to a service offering, you will find the fields in the “Web Site” section are pre-populated (if we felt we had a reasonable match) or empty. If the latter, you will need to fill in the fields yourself (see the web fields Word doc, which spells out which fields are required, provides some length restrictions/guidelines, and includes screenshots so you can see how these fields actually display on the website).

If your offering has existing content from the ITS website, when you go to edit it (click the pencil icon), the information that appears in the QuickBase fields will include the underlying HTML markup and other formatting symbols. We need to preserve that formatting, so, VERY IMPORTANT: Whenever you edit or add content to one of the Web Site fields, always use the “Edit” button to the right of that field.

This launches a window with a WYSIWYG editor where you can comfortably edit and/or cut and paste. Also important: When you finish editing and click the save button and close the editor window, you won’t see your changes in the QuickBase field until you refresh the QuickBase page.

A word about Service Offering descriptions

The description fields of the QuickBase service offering pages are admittedly a bit confusing. Trust me, there was a method to the madness, but trust me again, you don’t want to know. Here is what you do need to know:

Janet Jeddry took on the tedious task of reviewing all of the descriptions in our initial taxonomy spreadsheet, and proposing new descriptions that would bring more consistency of length, content, and style

Please review and edit (lightly) the proposed description near the top of the page, and when it suits you, paste it into the description field directly above

Then (and sorry, here is a bit of a curve) use that description either verbatim, if appropriate, or as the basis for the Short Description field near the bottom of the ITS Website section. The length limitation of the short description is spelled out in the attached Word doc (25 words or fewer, or 180 characters - including spaces - or fewer)

Request button fields

You can ignore these fields unless you are NOT planning to use the new generic ServiceNow request form (or one of the nine custom SN request forms) for your service, and instead want to link to an existing Drupal or PDF form (or provide other instructions for requesting the service). If that is the case, please include the URL of that PDF or Drupal form in the “Request button link” field.

When you have reviewed or created content for all of the Web Site required fields (see web fields doc), check the “Web Site Data Complete” box and save the page.

Keep in mind that the data imported to QuickBase was based on our best attempt at a mapping. As a service owner or manager, you may know that other content from existing services should have been included (in whole or in part) in your service offering. Please feel free to cut and paste this (or other) content into QuickBase -- using the WYSIWYG editor -- as appropriate.

Finally, and most important: Before APRIL 15, please be sure to review ALL of your Service Offerings to be sure the required fields ALL contain content, and that the content is accurate and up to date. This is the perfect opportunity to clean up and update your service pages.

Thank you for all of your work on this, and please reach out to Chris Kilbourne with any questions or issues re: ITS website fields of the QuickBase app.